This is my 96 f150 that has been sitting for several years now.


I am starting this thread to seek advice and hopefully provide additional motivation to keep working on it even when everything in the world goes wrong lol. I have started and stopped working on it several times now but keep getting aggravated with it and putting it off till later.

Right now I have a seal kit coming for the transmission I started a thread about a couple of days ago and will be taking it apart and cleaning it up as best I can.

I originally wanted to just get it running and then work on things a little at a time but im finding too many things wrong to do like that so I may end up tearing it down and doing basically a frame off resto on the cheap. When I bought it it had seen hard use as a woods truck so now I am trying to fix years of hard running.

Things preventing it from running right now:

c6 in it now is burnt up, putting the 5 spd back in as soon as I get a new shifter handle and separator plate from the junkyard

freeze plug missing behind the exhaust manifold on drivers side. I may be able to get it in by dropping the exhaust but if not I will have to pull the manifold. I started spraying down the exhaust bolts and will keep doing that for about a week so hopefully I wont have any troubles there.

it has been sitting for probably 4 years and hasnt been cranked in 2 or 3 years. I plan to pull the gas tank and drain what little bit of old gas is in there, put a new filter on and fill the tank with fresh gas and seafoam and hope it will run after I shoot a little pb blaster down in the cylinders.

I wanted to do things a little at a time to minimize down time but when i was looking at the freeze plug and the front of the frame where I will be adding a winch bumper I found several problems that make me wonder if I would be better off to just pull the front clip off and try to do as much as I can.



2 problems and a headache in this one picture. 1: rust on the bottom of the core support 2: body mount is completely gone and the headache: trying to mount a bumper to the crumple zone on the frame. I am thinking of pulling the front clip and cutting off the ends of the frame and then boxing it in which will give me a flat surface to mount the winch bumper to. Also that will allow me to address the rust and make it easier to get at the freeze plug hopefully.

I have some light rust starting on the underside of the cab also so I will end up pulling that at some point but I am hoping to put that off for a while.

Sorry for the long post but there is a lot to do on this truck and I am still trying to figure out where to start to get it going. Thanks for looking and advice is welcome.

 

Pick a project and finish it. Start small and build momentum (and interest).

Making a real list on paper might help (as long as that list isn't so long it makes you say "screw it")

 

100% with building a list out. That is what I do with every vehicle I own new or old. Something about getting one thing done and being able to mark it off makes me feel like I've done something lol.

 

Any time I start a project like this, I do what has been suggested. Make a list, start out with the most important stuff first and work down to the little stuff. Get fluids in the motor and get it running. If that doesn't happen the whole project is a wash as far as my builds go. Then get it moving, then fix the other stuff, bumper, body mounts, other stuff. On paper I'm sure it will look like a big under taking, but take it one step at a time and it will dwindle down.
And I'm sure now that you've made a thread people will wonder how the progress is coming so the constant nagging from us should keep you motivated.

 

First thing I am going to pull the front clip to get the rust and missing mount fixed, while that is off I will pull the manifold to get the missing freeze plug replaced. Decided to wait on headers because I am not sure i will be keeping the 302. Transmission parts I should have by friday so that will be next weeks goal to get that in and going.

After she is moving under her own power I plan to hit the junkyard for a rear end and chunk for the front end. Having spares will let me take my time setting up the new gears I am putting in. Still not quite sure if I will be going with 4.11s or 4.56s. Right now I am leaning towards 4.56s because I would like to go to 35 in tires after I finish off the 33s that are on it.

After the axles I will be either rebuilding the 302 or swapping in a 351. Jury is still out on that because I am trying to stay low budget on this. the power of the 351 would be nice but that means buying a junkyard motor then rebuilding, vs just rebuilding the 302 would leave a little extra for a decent set of heads. opinions are welcome here.

 

If I were you, I would just get the 302 running enough to see if the rest of the truck will move once the tranny parts show up. You may discover other problems once it actually moves. I would then pull the 302 (and front clip and fix the rust problem) and drop in a 351w with a set of headers on it. You can buy a 351w in decent shape for fairly cheap, and sell your 302 then. It's almost a drop in deal, there are threads here about it. It will also yield better performance than anything your 302 would do for the money you'll spend on getting the 351.

I would put 4.11 gears in it and stay with 33" tires. I say go with 4.11 because you don't have overdrive. The TTB front axles aren't particularly fond of large tires, and going over 33" typically ruins them fairly quickly.

 

Thats my plan for now, get the 302 going and drive it while doing other stuff. Any non critical engine work will be at least 6 months out and probably sometime next year.

I will have overdrive, the original m5od will be going back in it. As far as the tires go, I am still thinking on it. I will definately try to get a couple of extra inches of lift in front because right now the front sits a good bit lower than the back. This truck will be a daily driver but I don't do a lot of highway driving so I think the 4.56s would be ok.